You can’t be in business today without a website, but when was the last time you checked how it’s working?  

Just about every day I find websites that never load or are simply so slow, I lose interest.   So, check out your website every day and whenever you can, check it out on somebody else’s computer.    I recently spoke at IPI’s Summer Workshop and one of the attendees told me that everybody in his office has their computer set up to land on a different page of the website every time they turn on their computer.   It’s a brilliant idea and in this case they have six pairs of eyes checking six different pages/actions to make sure things are working right. 

When checking your website, if nothing else, pay attention to the following:

• Load Time: I know you like the music and ego-driving introductions, but don’t get carried away. If it doesn’t load fast you’ll lose your potential customer.

• Image Quality: I’m amazed to see how many photographers simply load in images to fill up space.  If it’s not your very best work, don’t put it on your site.  If you wouldn’t buy the image yourself, then it’s not your very best work!

• Diversity: You never know who’s going to look at your site. Display images showing your full potential and include a good variety of specialties.  For example: fashion, family, landscape, macro, wedding and portrait.  Also mix up the techniques and show black-and white, color, infrared, cross-processing, etc.

• Contact Information: Give people a way to respond and talk to you live. You’re in a service business and nobody has confidence in an email contact system by itself.  Let people call you! 

• Images: If a picture’s worth a thousand words, then give people images, NOT copy.  Check out websites by people like Yervant, Joe Buissink, Bambi Cantrell and Jerry Ghionis and you’ll see lots of images.  And there’s another common denominator in all four of these websites – they were all built by Bigfolio.   That’s an incredible statement in itself.

There’s a ton of information out there about making your website more effective.  I’ll be the first to admit, it’s hard to practice what I preach, but at the same time, a great website should always be viewed as work in progress.  The expression goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”   Well, it should be “If it ain’t broke you haven’t looked hard enough!”

And if you’re looking for more tips, along with marketing, lighting, SEO/SEM, social media, blogging, fusion technology and album design (just to name a few) - join us August 16 – 19 in Las Vegas for Summer School.  It’s definitely going to be a kick and you’ll leave with new ideas you can start to implement the minute you get back!  It’s 15 different speakers in 2 1/2 days and loaded with great content with a few surprises here and there too!  Hope to see you in Vegas.